Monday, April 18, 2016

All India Radio ponders their future on shortwave

The
Prasar Bharati Board is contemplating shutting down the short-wave service of
the External Services Division (ESD) of All India Radio (AIR) even as a proposal
to switch to an affordable internet-based radio service is still under
consideration. A section of the board is keen on closing down the short wave
service as an exorbitant amount is being spent to maintain the current
infrastructure.

“The
total budget allocated to ESD is Rs 100 crore annually. Out of this,
approximately Rs 95 crore is spent on the maintenance of short wave
transmitters, which includes the high cost of spare parts that are not easily
available. The remaining Rs 5 crore is spent on the production of programmes in
27 languages, and to pay the salaries of the staff who are hired on a contract
basis,” said a senior official in the ESD.

“One
would expect to gain a large fan base after spending so much money, but this has
not been the case with ESD. Since no survey has ever been done to determine the
number of listeners, we cannot give an exact or even an approximate number of
people who listen to AIR’s ESD channels across the world. But we know that we
have a good following based on the feedback that we receive from people in
countries where ESD is being listened to. Our listeners send us postcards or
emails from Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, etc. But the following is not
in proportion to the money being spent on this service,” said the senior
officer.

“The
proposal suggests the shutting down of short wave and the service being made
web-based. Since internet is far reaching, listening radio live on the web
should not hurt our existing fan base. But of course there is the argument that
short wave can reach even the remotest corners of the world, which is not the
case with internet signals. The shutting down of short wave, without a doubt,
will affect the propaganda value of India among its listeners abroad. This is
why there are chances that the short wave service might continue in neighboring
countries like China, Nepal, etc. Also, India’s edge in a continent like Africa
will suffer a blow if the short-wave is to be shut down,” said sources in
AIR.

To
understand the importance of short wave radio services overseas one can take a
look at the efforts that neighbouring China puts in for its own propaganda among
audiences abroad. “The communication strategies of China are impressive. For
example, they have respective radio documentaries about neighbouring countries
that educate the listeners about China’s take on the issues in that particular
country. Their transmitters are used to their full capacity which helps the
listener get a perfect signal. In India, none of our transmitters are being used
to their full capacity. So a listener would automatically prefer to listen to a
frequency that is clear and easy to hold on to. They also invest a lot in the
content of their programmes. There are Tamil radio programmes made by the
Chinese who speak Tamil. We have a programme in Swahili, which is produced with
the help of some African students who study in India. The reason why India has
failed to match the strategic communication design implemented by our neighbour
is that India is still a developing country. We have more important issues that
need to be addressed immediately. The decision to save money and put it in
improving our internet services and the quality of our programmes is not a bad
idea either,” said a senior official in ESD.

The
e-mail sent by this correspondent to Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharati, did not
get any response until the time of going to press.

All
India Radio had started external broadcasting shortly after the outbreak of the
Second World War, with a service in Pushtu for listeners across the country’s
then North West Frontier. The service was designated to counter radio propaganda
from Germany, directed at Afghanistan, Iran and Arab countries. After the war
ended, the equipment was presented to AIR, which took over active control and
continued external broadcasting.